Victories over structural violence.

Abstract

Structural violence has been inherent in the governance of the United States for almost 200 years. It has been a feature of American society since its inception and, within psychology, it has been associated with the use of intelligence tests from the time they were first introduced in the United States. This article briefly traces the history of structural violence in society at large and in psychology's use of the IQ test. It examines the past and potential role of psychologists in combating that violence and proposes new directions for that purpose. Finally, it describes an example of how bias in psychology has led the field to ignore a theme that should be highly relevant to peace psychology—namely, imperialism as a major basis of structural violence.